Born near Garson on 26 November 1908, daughter of Benjamin Charles Cooke and Annie Maud Thompson, she had a life-long interest in Manitoba history. She received BA (1941) and MA (1943) degrees from the University of Manitoba, writing a thesis for the latter on the 1896 federal election in Manitoba. Over the years she operated a rooming house and worked as a stenographer and reporter. On 26 May 1933, she married psychologist Peter J. Paetkau (?-1980) at Winnipeg and, in 1938, they changed their surname to Hampton. The couple divorced in mid-1943. She died at Winnipeg on 4 November 1994 and was buried in the Chapel Lawn Memorial Gardens.